


Son of Skyhold

by Galindrael



Series: A Very Dragon Age Christmas [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: DECFANFIC, Day Four, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Snowball Fight, Straight up fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-04
Updated: 2014-12-04
Packaged: 2018-02-28 03:19:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2716961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galindrael/pseuds/Galindrael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With a new layer of snow and a busy dwarf, Scáthach was "asked" to see to Cole for an afternoon. The chaos that erupted would be remembered fondly in the years to come.</p><p>For the #DecFanFic Contest.</p><p>There are currently 22 parts to this series, the link, for some reason is broken- sorry for the issue, I'm trying to fix it (as of 1 February 2015)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Son of Skyhold

Scáthach stretched herself awake and whined when she felt that the place beside her was empty. Cullen must have gotten up with the sun to start training. He was always so quiet in the morning if he woke before her. She, on the other hand, was too clumsy if she was drowsy and normally woke her poor Commander up, to which he’d usually just grab her pillow and throw it over his head.

Fighting the warmth of her bed, she sat up and rubbed her eyes for a moment before she sat up and see he had lit the fire and had brought her breakfast. _I’m not too_ -her stomach growled. _Maybe, just a bit_ … The winter made her crave meats and thick soups. She grabbed her robe and tied it tightly around her waist then slipped into her boots not bothering to yet tie the laces. She walked over to the covered plate and felt the warmth of the lid. _Was that from the fire or did he just leave?_ Her stomach growled again. _Alright, shit._ She lifted the lid and, bless Cullen, he grabbed her ham, eggs and, to her disgust, a small cup of porridge with sweetened roasted pecans on top. She ate the eggs and ham by the fire and sipped on the water. She tried the porridge but immediately regretted it. _Gross, Cullen, how could you eat that._ She childishly made gagging sounds and spit out what was left in her mouth, grabbed the water and swished it around trying to get the taste out. She dressed, slowly, still fighting off the urge to crawl back into bed. _Cold air, that’ll help_.

She made her way to the glass door that overlooked the courtyard and unlatched it. The rush of cold air hit her and she tensed at the sudden change, feeling the warmth fleeing her body. She shivered but pressed on. _Come on, Scáthach, get your shit together. Everyone else is up. But, everyone isn’t a noblewoman. No, come on, I can do it._ She slowly made her way to the balcony and was so glad she did. Beneath her, in Skyhold’s courtyard, Cullen had begun morning training for his troops.

From what she could see, the man that gave into her each night, was an intimidating presence to the new recruits.  They were rim-rod straight and Cullen was shouting at them for something. One of them must have responded in a way Cullen didn’t like as the Commander had practically ran to the recruit and got in his face. That recruit got to run the perimeter of the keep. Scáthach snickered.  _Dunce._ Cullen then instructed to start stretching for their drill for the day and the Commander took off his helmet and had two of his veterans fetch their practice swords.

Scáthach had to move away from the balcony or she’d watch him all morning. So she rushed back into the warmth of her room and put on her lighter armor but chose her thicker boots and fur. Lastly she picked up the ring Cullen gave her and put it on her finger despite it being too big for her. She opened her jewelry box and slipped the ring onto an empty chain she had. She placed it around her neck and grimaced when the cold metal touched her skin. She slipped it under her tunic and made her way down the stairs. She immediately headed to the War Room with Josephine and Leliana, spending an hour or so just planning resource gathering, negotiations and… Leliana’s “negotiations”. Without Cullen, that was all they could do so each returned to their duties as Scáthach made her way through the main hall of the keep.

“Coffee?” Varric offered as she began to pass by.

 

Scáthach immediately stopped walking and turned to face the dwarf, “You know my weakness, it seems”.

Varric poured her a cup from the kettle he had by his fire. Well, it wasn’t his _per se_ , but really everyone knew this was Varric’s spot and not to displace him. So, for all intents and purposes, it was his. Scáthach took the seat directly opposite and then took the cup Varric was offering. She stood up, moved around some of Varric’s crumpled up pieces of paper and looked around the table for the cup Varric that usually held the sugar as it wasn’t in its usual place, directly in the middle.

“Sugar?” She half-begged.

“All ready in there, _Mrs. Rutherford_ ,” Varric smiled as he looked up at her while drinking his coffee.

She went red. Not even pink that could’ve been mistaken from the cold. She felt her face heat up and stared at the dwarf, wondering if she heard him right.

“How-,” she sat down and lowered her body nearly parallel with the table and leaned in close before whispering, “How did _you_ know _that_?!” She was racking her head trying to think of what she had said to give up the information. _Maker, what if Cullen said something?_ She placed her head in her hand and looked to Varric who had a wicked smile on his face.

“I didn’t,” he placed his cup down, “But you just confirmed it”. He folded his hands waiting for her to ask the inevitable.

“WHAT?!” her loud response made the guards near the door turn to the Inquisitor and she just shooed them away with a wave in their direction.

“I saw Curly in his office awhile back,” he pointed to her chest, “with that ring in neat little box,” Scáthach subconsciously reached for the ring and tucked it back in. She hadn’t even felt it fall out.

Varric continued, “He shut it when he saw me in the doorway, but the advantages of only being as tall as his desk, is that he doesn’t always notice me right away. When he did, though, that look of panic on his face told me enough”.

Scáthach was now rubbing her face, thankful that she did not put any make-up on earlier, “Please don’t-“

“I would never,” he sheepishly smiled again.

She sighed, “What do you want?”

He laughed, “No big deal, but a liaison to my publisher comes in when Cole and I usually play cards at lunch. Just keep the kid occupied. He’s getting used to the human thing still, well, _more_ human thing, I guess” his face got a bit sullen, “I just didn’t want him to think I was blowing him off”.

“I like spending time with our resident spirit. He’s..” she thought carefully, “He’s like the kid who followed me home and now I can’t imagine not having him around. I love the kid”.

“You love who now?” Cullen had walked up behind her and sat in his usual spot across from the fire.

His face was pink from the cold weather and he was sweating from the exercise routine he surely just finished with his recruits. He leaned back to stretch out his legs but stayed in the lazy, but comfortable, position.

Varric handed him his coffee, black like he liked it, “I’m sorry, Curly, we’re happily in love and running off to the wilds”.

Cullen chuckled and threw one of Varric’s crumpled pieces of paper at him. It hit him in the chest and fell to his lap. “I’m so hurt by this betrayal”, Cullen took a sip of the coffee testing its temperature before he took a larger drink.

“Nah, we were talking about Cole,” Varric poured more coffee into his cup.

Cullen shot an amused look at Scáthach, “Do I have competition?”

Scáthach lightly kicked him under the table and he grabbed her foot before she could pull it back. Cullen placed it on his lap and Scáthach added the other on top of it.

“No, my dear Commander, but I was saying that I enjoy spending time with Cole. He’s very special and I think he wonders about his place still. I was going to spend lunch with him, a bit of fun, maybe”, she was looking into her coffee.

She wanted to give Cole happiness. She wanted him to see that although there are terrible things in this world, being a human was not one of them if you had the right company. Cullen remembered she used to have a little brother that she used to play with every morning until one day; he caught a cold that never left him, no matter what the mages and healers did. Months later, in the middle of the night, before winter officially came, her brother didn’t wake. She told Cullen she stopped being a child that year- and she was only nine at the time. He remembers how serious she was when they first met…and coming from him, that was something, surely. He didn’t appreciate her friendship with The Iron Bull and Sera until he noticed she played more often now. Now she wanted to give that to Cole. _She’d be a wonderful moth- Oh, Maker._ Cullen sat up.

“I think,” Cullen coughed and sat up straight and Scáthach removed her feet from his lap, “I think that’s a wonderful idea. I’ll probably still be training the new recruits around lunch but, I hope things go well”.

Scáthach finished her coffee and returned the dish to the table, “Do you have time to go over reports for the War Room or should we do that later?". Cullen looked to the clock.

“We have time, it was only a couple reports,” he stood up and offered his hand to Scáthach, who happily took his hand.

“Thank you for the coffee, Ser Varric,” Scáthach bowed her head before wrapping her arm around the Commander’s.

“Yes,” Cullen bowed, “thank you”.

 

Varric was sure “War Room” was code for sneaking off for a bit of fun, but, it seems, he was wrong as they returned moments later. Scáthach had some papers under her arm and Cullen was pulling up one of his gloves, and then the other. They walked past him and before they got to the door he stopped and pulled the Inquisitor into a quick kiss, and said something Varric wished he caught as she opened her mouth in protest before he stole another quick kiss. She playfully hit where he wasn’t armored and then she began fixing the Commander’s appearance. He needed to look the part, so Scáthach made sure he looked pristine every morning after coffee. She tugged on his tunic to straighten it out and adjusted his pauldrons so they were tight again after the morning of jarring exercise. Lastly she fixed the few rogue strands of hair and tucked them back into place. Cullen caught her hand and brought it to his lips, then tilted his head to her and he turned to leave for the courtyard hanging onto her hand until their arms were fully extended before letting go. Varric chuckled. _I’m so writing them into something_. 

The guards opened the door for him and enthusiastically announced, “Commander” as he made his way back to the courtyard. Scáthach left to attend to the pile of papers from the War Room but came back down shortly before lunch. She was about to join Varric when someone shouted the dwarf’s name.

“Ah, Varric, so pleased to hear you have another chapter for us,” the man was thin, similar to Cullen in complexion but had nowhere near his height. Scáthach stood nearly a foot shorter than the Commander and the man was about in between their heights.

Varric showed the guest into Varric’s personal chambers and Scáthach was left alone for a few moments before Cole came in.

“Hello,” he offered before he sat down, “Varric’s friend is here today, right?”

Scáthach nodded, “Yes, but, I’m free, if you’d like to stay”.

Cole smiled, “That would be nice. I’m rubbish at cards, apparently,” he fidgeted with his hands that were placed on the table.

“Come on, let’s head to the Tavern,” Scáthach got up and Cole followed in suit.

The guards opened the door for her and announced, loudly, “Inquisitor”. Scáthach caught Cullen’s head turn towards her before he turned back to continue berating a recruit’s lousy shield-arm. She paused just for a moment to take in the scene. A fresh layer of snow fell over-night and the sun was just now starting to lighten up the courtyard fully. When she stole a quick look at the soldiers, she noticed that a lot of them must have made mistakes this morning, with how many were staring at their feet and how many had a sneer on their face.

“I’m surprised no one’s thrown a snowball at the Commander,” Scáthach remarked as they made it to the flat break of stone between the segments of stairs that led out of Skyhold.

She began to take the next step when she heard, quietly, “What’s a snowball?” She retracted her foot and returned it back to the flat stone.

“You know,” she turned to Cole who was very close behind her, if it was anyone else she probably would’ve stepped back, “ when you bunch up a bit of snow and-” she made a mock throwing motion.

Cole just shook his head. Scáthach smiled, grabbed his hand, and led him down to the edge of the courtyard to show Cole the massive amount of fun that a snowball fight could be.

He didn’t understand at first, why he was packing snow, “It’s cold and light, like the morning sun. It prickles your flesh and yet,” he turned to her, “You’d laugh as he’d throw this at you? Is that was this is for?” He looked to the snowball in his hands, “My hands are cold”. He looked up at her.

“Throw it at me, not hard…or with intent to hurt, just, like this,” she threw hers lightly at Cole and when it impacted his chest and exploded he smiled. He returned the gesture and Scáthach’s laughter caught The Iron Bull’s attention. He was coming down from Dorian’s place and he saw Scáthach kneeling and packing her next snowball so, he joined in. He threw it a bit hard and knocked her on her ass, though.

Cole outright laughed, so Scáthach threw her snowball at him but the boy learned and moved out of the way, Scáthach’s snowball exploding on impact with the ground. 

“Oh you, fast thing,” Scáthach remarked as she began gathering more snow in her hand.

“I am fast, aren’t-” Bull’s snowball hit Cole in the shoulder.

Bull laughed and Cole disappeared, and reappeared on the steps to throw one from above.

“Hey, that’s cheating,” Bull laughed as he wiped off the snow from his head.

“You’d call it resourceful,” Cole said trying to pack his next snowball and avoid being hit again.

The Iron Bull nodded, “That is true,” as he ducked behind a bush to grab snow under some semblance of cover.

Scáthach was searching for Cole and spotted him running for the boxes on the other side of the training field but she wasn’t paying attention to Cole’s surroundings and just chucked it where she thought Cole would be if he kept up that speed. Unfortunately, he saw her so he stopped in his tracks and the snowball hit an unintended target, “Maker!” a startled voice rang out.

 

It hit Cullen right in the back of his head and had caused him to drop his clipboard in the snow.

The soldiers stopped. Scáthach covered her mouth and was awaiting a scowl. Cole ducked behind a box, trying to make himself small. Bull was trying not to laugh, but unable to hold in his snickering. Cullen didn’t turn around; he shook the snow from his head and slowly bent down to pick up his clipboard.

Or, so she thought, but the Commander had whirled around with a snowball and it smacked Scáthach right in the shoulder.

“Well, soldiers,” he yelled, “What are you waiting for, we’re under attack!”  He turned to smile at her and she ran for the shield that was leaning up against the wall but Bull had thrown one in front of her and made her turn.

When none of the soldiers moved he turned around, “It’s either this or laps, soldiers”. And the courtyard erupted in a snowball fight. Sera peaked out to see what was going on and got a snowball right in the face. The soldier that threw it at her began to apologize but she just shouted, “HA” before returning the favor. The rest of the Chargers joined in moments later and Scáthach caught Cassandra drinking her tea from atop the safety of the battlements smiling at the chaos below. Snow was flying everywhere, the laughter was louder than any training session Cullen had given and Cole got to experience some real fun. 

Scáthach and Cullen spent their time trying to get one another, and the noise of the snowball fight even had Morrigan and Kieran joining the ranks…well, people were too afraid to hit either but they let the boy get a few good shots in. Scáthach noticed Bull waving upwards and then gesturing to come down, when she turned around, she looked up and saw Dorian waiving and shaking his head and pointing to the tea in his hand, and Leliana and Josie laughing at the mess below while Blackwall had a large smile plastered across his face.

 Dorian, of course, was down moments later starting a war between himself and Bull much like Scáthach was having with Cullen. She turned to see him throwing a snowball at Cole who just side-stepped and returned his snowball towards Cullen who raised a bracer to the projectile, both laughing loudly. Cole started running about and Cullen was still trying to hit the fast target when Scáthach saw the garden door open, with a bald head opening the door with his back to the crowd…and then Cullen’s snowball hitting Solas square in the chest, just as Solas had turned around.

Solas merely staggered, looked to his chest and then to the Commander, whose face was filled with worry as the two of them rarely interacted.  Solas set down his box of phials and fresh-picked herbs and just chuckled as he wiped off the snow. Cullen relaxed and nodded towards Cole and Solas nodded.

Cole, noticing them, ran towards Scáthach, “Help, they’ve teamed up” and hid behind her.

“I won’t let them team up on you! Let’s get ‘em,” Scáthach replied as she completed packing the snowball that was in her hands.

 

Cole and Scáthach made a great team. They spent the next hour or so fighting off Solas and Cullen, and the occasionally brave recruit or Charger. Sera was everywhere and nowhere cackling with each impact, Bull and Dorian were both soaked to the skin and Cullen’s soldiers were being annoyingly tactical with it all. Slowly, the snowball fight died off and everyone either returned to their duties or called it a day. Cullen even gave his soldiers the rest of the day off.

  When dinner came everyone was tired from running around, most settling in to comfortable places by any of the hold’s fires. Bull and Dorian went to enjoy hot tea in the tavern, Varric came in to listen to everyone’s tales- a bit disappointed he missed it for the publisher, honestly. Sera made sure she made a show of it, though, wildly recounting the events from a top the table Varric was sitting at.

Cole had come up to Scáthach’s room to sit on the sofa by the fire, which she insisted, so he could warm up and dry some of his clothes on the rack by the fire. Scáthach had dinner sent up for herself and Cullen, who was probably still changing out of his wet clothes. Cole sat next to Scáthach and asking her what the food tasted like and what was her favourite, she was surprised that he tried a bit of beef. He wasn’t a fan. Cullen came in the room and was surprised to see his usual seat next to her taken but didn’t hesitate to sit next to Cole instead.

Scáthach hadn’t noticed he was carrying mugs before but he offered one to Cole, “I didn’t know if you’d like to try one but I had the cook make one for you anyway”.

Cole smelled the dark warm contents, “It’s sweet. Like childhood summers and Wintersend, for you,” he looked to Cullen, “I will try some”. He took a sip and to both Cullen and Scáthach’s surprise, he kept drinking.

Cullen and Scáthach ate their dinner, joking and answering whatever strange questions Cole had… Cullen even answered a few of his more personal questions. And Cole was content to listen and talk.  When Cullen and Scáthach finished eating and started getting ready for bed, Cole said goodnight and began to leave but paused at the stairs.

“I like this. It’s,” Cole struggled to find the right words, “I’m sorry. But like family. I feel safe here. And,” he looked to Scáthach, walked to her, and wrapped his arms around her, “And loved”. Cole sniffled against her chest, “Thank you”. Scáthach wrapped her hands around Cole and squeezed. Cullen grabbed Cole’s hat from its drying place and waited by the stairs for him, trying to give them some privacy.

“You _are_ loved, Cole,” she replied with a shaking voice.

Cullen was startled when he felt hands wrap around his waist that were too thin to be Scáthach’s. He looked down at Cole, unsure what to do so he looked to Scáthach whose eyes were now brimming with tears and her hand over her mouth to hide her quivering jaw and all she could do was nod at Cullen.

Cullen placed a hand on the young man’s head, and surprised himself when his breath hitched with his next inhale. He tried to speak but nothing came out, so he pursed his lips and he returned the hug as sincerely as he could, barely remembering to offer Cole his hat when he began to leave. Had Scáthach asked Cullen to be kind to Cole earlier in the year, she wasn’t sure he would have been. Cole was, then, a spirit that could read your deepest thoughts and Cullen kept his secrets close unless you were precious to him. Now he was standing in shock that he had grown to care for Cole. Cullen watched the young man descend the steps and quietly close the door behind him.

He had become precious to Scáthach and, so, he had become precious to Cullen. He went from odd spirit to dear friend to family in such a short time, neither noticed when it happened. Scáthach, Varric and Solas were the first to openly be kind and gentle with Cole despite being unsure of what he really was then. Vivienne stopped making outright rude remarks and Sera was neither kind nor cruel, which was better than before. Cassandra helped train him a bit, which she enjoyed having an attentive student. Blackwall was unsure initially, but he had become the uncle that brought up subjects you wished he hadn’t. Dorian, had always been fascinated with Cole and treated him with respect, and Bull, appreciated his honesty, no matter how strange. Cole was the spirit of a forgotten child, but here, here he was the very much loved son of Skyhold.

**Author's Note:**

> So far, this is my favourite of the prompts. My Inquisitor would surely beg Cullen to outright adopt Cole if they could, for he is precious and deserves every good thing coming his way.


End file.
